Two Cow Garage - Speaking In Cursive

Things are well in the world. There have been a slew of great releases lately, but few have been more exciting for this shut-in than the new Two Cow Garage record. It's called Speaking In Cursive and it's coming out via Virgil Dickerson and the good folk of Suburban Home (and the Vinyl Collective, if you are so enamored of the concentric spiral groove). I just got the pre-order a day or so ago, complete with buttons and beer coozie. Other than ears, what more do you need?

Speaking In Cursive marks the first Two Cow record without original drummer/Jesus doppelganger/God Of Thunder who lives and walks among us: Dustin Harigle. While Two Cow are hardly The Who, his drums were a big part of their live show. The gents seem to have found a replacement, and a full-time keyboard dude, since and expanded their arrangements accordingly. Don't expect a Marillion record or anything, but the move to a five-piece and mentoring by Brent Best (The Drams, Slobberbone) and Matt Pence (Centro-matic) has made for a bigger (and better) Five Cow sound.

Maybe you saw the This Is American Music tour last year with Glossary, The Drams, Grand Champeen and Two Cow? If you did, you probably heard some of the songs that have finally been magnetized on Speaking In Cursive, most notably Micah's stellar new Skinny Legged Girl. If that was the only track on the record, I would still put it in my top ten for the year. Lucky for us, it's not and the other dozen or so tracks are pretty damn good. Micah's got the lion's share of the tracks, but Shane and his baritone weigh in with a couple of numbers that are rapidly becoming my favorites.

And hopefully yours, too. They've cancelled more shows in NYC than they've played, but I'm looking forward to seeing them at DC's in Hoboken on 10/24. I've flown out to a handful of shows that historically would be stymied by amp failure or other enviornmental issues, but when they overcome the rock inertia, those boys tear it up live. I hear Chris Flint (manager and occasional guitarist) is out with them, so it's a fully-functioning death star. You really need to see them. Just watch out for the flying headstocks. The record's not out until 10/21, but I believe you can still snag the pre-order here. Buy it even if you don't need the buttons or the coozie.

R